Overall the installation was easy, no issues. Was amazed at the clarity of fonts and overall look.

However, the laptop temperature seems to be an issue. Though lm_sensors shows that the temperature is at 45 C (45 Degree Celsius), the left palm rest and some parts at the bottom felt much warmer than when the laptop runs Windows 7.

Also noticed that while installing the OS from DVD, the laptop fan would start whizzing fast for a few seconds and then stop, again start, then stop. This stopped after the actual package installation started. After the installation completed, I started using the laptop and noticed the issues mentioned here.

So is this normal?

The laptop left palm rest felt unusually hot with SL 6.3. This is a new laptop and I dont want the heat to kill it.

I tried using the latest kernel version 3.8 from elrepo, but the brightness stopped working. Brightness works with the stock kernel thats shipped with SL 6.3, but the new kernel seems to have issues.

In spite of using a laptop cooling pad, the temp stays at 45C.

Please let me know if this is something I should worry about, or is this temperature normal?

I have posted a similar question on Thinkpad Forum, and on Lenovo Support site as well, but I am hoping someone here will help.

I had the same exact issue going from SL5 to SL6 on my desktop (For obvious reasons it also occurred going from Centos 5 to Centos 6). Like yourself, when doing processor intensive tasks, especially installing or upgrading software, the cpu fan would just start screaming at full blast because the processors were pegging. I was never able to resolve the issue. Neither Ubuntu, or Mint Debian or Windows 7 exhibited that problem. It scared the hell out of me and I eventually removed it from my desktop as not to damage it. I may eventually re-try a later release.

I find the T430 issue disturbing, as I am also looking at buying maybe a slimmer and lighter version of that (maybe T430s, T431s, x230, etc.).